


Secret Santa

by Hisa_Ai



Series: 31 Days of Christmas [28]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: 31 Days of fic, AU, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Christmas, Christmas prompts, Day 28, F/M, Fluff, Friendship, Humor, M/M, Modern Day, Prompt Fic, Sappy, Secret Santa, Yule
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-28
Updated: 2013-12-28
Packaged: 2018-01-07 00:15:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1113204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hisa_Ai/pseuds/Hisa_Ai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gwen decides that a Secret Santa is just the thing to bring everyone together this holiday season.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Secret Santa

* * *

Gwen, it was known, liked nothing more than to bring everyone together and make sure they all enjoyed the holiday season. Even though they were all well into their late twenties and early thirties, she liked to do silly little things to make sure they all had as much fun as they could with every holiday season that came and went. And the things she did were always a little… Out there, a bit young, perhaps, but they always did them, whether it be caroling, parties, snowball fights, snow art competitions, things of the such.

But she had never had them do something so…  _Normal_.

"A secret Santa?" Gwaine asked, his eggnog frozen mid-air.

"Yes, a secret Santa," she beamed, nodding enthusiastically, threading her fingers with Lance's as everyone else looked on, not sure if she was serious or not.

Merlin almost wanted to laugh at the notion. A secret Santa. That meant, well, keeping things secret, and their group wasn't exactly well known for being able to keep things from each other. No, they'd always been too open, shared  _too much_ , some might say. And okay, maybe keeping the secret of who they were gifting to wouldn't be so hard if it was only for a couple of days, but December had barely started, she was asking them to keep the identity of who they were meant to buy for a secret for  _weeks._

As though any of them might manage  _that_.

"Are you sure that's such a good idea?" Leon asked.

"Yeah, it's not like anyone here is the best at keeping secrets," Elyan nodded.

"Oh come on now," Morgana chided them all, silencing their worries and objections concerning the matter. "It's a lovely idea, and it should help us all in that department. Not being able to tell anyone who we're meant to buy things for should be great practice for us all. Establish some boundaries and all that," She smiled at Gwen, and that was the end of that.

Merlin wasn't too keen on the idea of setting up  _boundaries_  between friends such as them—he had cringed at the suggestion, actually, Arthur's eyeroll and slight squeeze of his hand enough to assure him that he wasn't the only one not too keen on the idea—but everyone shortly wrote their name down on a slip of paper, nonetheless, and were drawing a different slip from a plastic bowl Gwen provided.

When it was Merlin's turn to draw a name, he was actually rather excited, wondering whom he might get. He had several different gifts in mind for the different people he might get—be it Gwen or Percival or Morgana or Leon or  _whoever_ —and maybe this wouldn't be such a terrible idea after all…

Disappointed wasn't quite the word Merlin would have used to describe what he was feeling when he pulled Arthur's name out of the damn bowl.

He loved Arthur—a lot—but he had been hoping for a  _challenge_. He  _lived_  with Arthur, already had his gift bought and wrapped, so he had… Been hoping for someone  _different_. Maybe Elyan or Gwaine or even Morgana or  _someone_.

But he couldn't exactly  _trade_ anyone—Gwen had already explained that one of the few rules, next to the fifty dollar limit, was that you  _could not trade names with anyone_. The last, emphasized part, had been directed at Gwaine and his childish grin, Merlin knew, but that was neither here nor there—so. He would just have to make it work.

When he and Arthur walked into their home later that night, the scraps of paper were shoved deep into their pockets and forgotten about until they were emptying them of any important items, Merlin's caught with his keys and Arthur's tangled with his loose change.

"I got Percival—who'd you get?" Arthur asked, dropping the scrap of paper in front of Merlin when they sat down for a late night-snack. Merlin grinned, it'd only been a few hours and already Arthur was spilling who he'd picked out of the bowl. He was right, there were no secrets between them. Everyone would know who was buying for who by the end of the week, if they lasted that long.

"We're not supposed to talk about it, Arthur." He shook his head, jabbed him in the side in a sort of chastising manner.

"Ah, you got  _me_ , then," Arthur nodded, biting into his sandwich. And Merlin didn't even try to deny it, because Arthur would just see through his façade. He made a non-committal sound and took a sip of his tea. "Well, I look forward," he lowered his tone, though Merlin couldn't be sure  _why_. "To seeing the sort of gift you might get me that'll be appropriate to give me in front of our friends," he chuckled at the blush that came over Merlin's features but left it at that, tucking into their half-meal and falling into casual conversation about nothing in particular.

When they were back in the kitchen later and Arthur was washing the dishes, handing them clean and wet to Merlin to dry and put away, he brought up the Secret Santas again.

"So I'm pretty sure Lance got you—the way he kept looking you over after he drew his name says he was either thinking about what to get you, or he wants to fuck you. With what you were wearing tonight, it could reasonably be either." He teased, flicking dish-soap onto Merlin's face with a grin.

Merlin whacked him back with the dishcloth, rolled his eyes. "I think Gwaine got Morgana—did you see that smirk on his face when he read his name? Perfect payback for her little stunt last year with that strap-on when his family was sitting  _right there_."

"I thought we  _weren't supposed to talk about it, Mer_ lin,"

"Oh shut up; we all knew how well  _that_  was going to work out." He rolled his eyes, continued the conversation in snippets well into the night as they went about their routines, then crawled into bed, the conversation only lulling once Arthur was pressing sweet, desperate kisses to Merlin's lips, jaw, collarbone in bed that night.

Despite their many reservations and the fact that everyone already  _knew_  who everyone else had gotten, the gift exchange the day before Christmas Eve was actually, well, pretty awesome.

They had all been right in their assumptions, of course, but no one, not even  _Gwen_ , minded that much when they were exchanging gifts and laughing about the framed photo Gwaine was given of himself by Elyan, or the book on Arthurian legends Leon handed  _Lancelot_ , or anything else that was given that night. All that mattered was that Gwen's plan had  _worked_ ; everyone was together and happy and enjoying themselves and the holiday season.

And, Merlin decided, that was better than any other gift Lance could have given him.

* * *

 

 


End file.
